I would have to tip my hat, was I wearing one to the the Big Sting. Great bassist, writer, vocalist and was in a historic British pop band. Yes he would come right after Macca. I am a fan, but not for his signature bass, that's a piece of crap

i agree there mate, he is good but you dont think bassists - paul mccartney is immence do ya? Ah well he did alot i suppose with the Beatles, his basslines are quite melodic but i think that period has been and gone to be honnest...

i agree there mate, he is good but you dont think bassists - paul mccartney is immence do ya? Ah well he did alot i suppose with the Beatles, his basslines are quite melodic but i think that period has been and gone to be honnest...

What, the period of melodic basslines? Ooops, going to have to change a lot of mine, then...

McCartney never did massively complex or difficult basslines, but they always fit in extremely well with the song and improved it. And what more do you want?

steady on fellas, let's not forget this is a sting appreciation thread!

I love sting - not just as a bassplayer, but as a singer and a composer too. I listen to the early police, and I can't believe how simple their stuff is; and yet it sounds so good! They seem to do so much with so few options, and I really like that in music; it keeps it uncluttered.

thanks to the OP for getting "I can't stand losing you" stuck in my head

i agree there mate, he is good but you dont think bassists - paul mccartney is immence do ya? Ah well he did alot i suppose with the Beatles, his basslines are quite melodic but i think that period has been and gone to be honnest...

Paul wasn't an incredible bassist, no. However, he was just an extremely talented musician in general. Was his skill level the best out there? No, probably not, but his song writing abilities as well as the ability to craft a bass line geared, not necessarily towards being amazing in and of itself, but towards the song and creating a solid piece of music.

I personally dislike Paul McCartney and his ex-wife, but you can't say he wasn't an incredible bassist, from a musicians point of view.

Sting is that sorta strange bassist. He dosn't do that much, but people seem to like him, which I don't, not really. I don't think it's fair to say that Paul McCartney wasn't a good bass player. The timing on alot of the Sgt. Peppers song's are just weird.

All I want is for everyone to go to hell......It's the last place I was seen before I lost myself

Why so much Macca hate? Listen to his bass work on Sg Peppers, White Album, Revolver...its amazing, easily as impressive as todays Wootens, Berlins and whatnot.

Anyway this is about Sting. I saw them on the reunion tour it was the best show I've ever seen. He (Sting) has this ability to be simple yet also very creative with his basslines, blending jazz. pop and reggatta. Gordon you are God.

On Sting. From a technical standpoint, he's not an amazing bass player, but considering the Police had an amazing drummer in Stuart Copeland and a great guitarist in Andy Summers, if he had been someone like a Stu Hamm, it would be over kill. He's the right bass player, laying down the foundation for the other two. I saw the Police this month, and they all sounded great and tight overall as a band. Sting has the oddest right hand technique tho', he uses his thumb and his fingers in a way I am still trying to sort out.

On Sting the person, well...the man has an ego that is larger than Maccas and I find that I can't make it through an interview with him without being buried in his self-absorption, but his has a definite stage presence and is a talented performer. Just not the best bass player that ever graced the planet.

i agree there mate, he is good but you dont think bassists - paul mccartney is immence do ya? Ah well he did alot i suppose with the Beatles, his basslines are quite melodic but i think that period has been and gone to be honnest...

Hmm... I saw Paul McCartney live when he gave his free show in Quebec City last sunday. I must tell you that this guy still have it.

I agree. Some one please, explain the love for him. He isn't very technical and there are better players that play in the pocket; I just don't get whats so great about him.

I agree as well. He is an amazing songwriter, but I don't think he is an amazing bassist. Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland were and continue to be some of the best at their respective instruments, so I guess the reason people like him as a bassist is because he plays to their strengths. Oh, but I can't say he does a really good job playing to their strengths because his ego is too big for that.........which is why I continue to think that, if it wasn't for Sting's ego, The Police would have stayed bigger, longer.

God, I don't know what to say to this.....except no.songwriter=yes bassist=god, no

how did the Seperatists react to the concert, at the venue? Were they still pissed? Or did the press blow that whole thing out of proportion?

Lol. I'm from Quebec but I'm federalist. Some people like Pierre Curzi (ex Artists union president) co-signed a petition to make Sir Paul go away. But Sir Paul said something like "Well, if you want, I can say the french won the war in Quebec, I don't care. I'm only here for music".

Paul gave an almost 3h show, spoke french a little bit ... The day after the show, they retracted. It brought 260 000 people in Quebec ONLY for Paul's show, so they understood they couldn't whine.

I don't understand all the fuss the Separatists made with that. It's not a political event. We're celebrating the foundation of one of the oldest cities in North America. And even if some hardcore separatists don't like it, british people are part of our history. Some forgot that the king of France wanted to ditch Quebec for isles in Central America. British people were the one who made us develop.

I have always found Sting to be a lackluster musician. His bass skills, although solid, do not warrent (in my opinion) a bass signature, and let us not forget that he was voted music's worst lyricist a year or two ago.

I think his bass lines are fun even if they are far from phenomenal. I don't really care about sting's solo work, I don't care too much about his bass playing. I just love listening to a good police song.

If Sting was auditioning for The Police as a solely a bass player, they wouldn't have chosen him. Nobody would have. It's is songwriting and singing that makes him a musician, not his bass playing. I'm having a hard time believing there's a lot of love for his straight bass playing. Him, like Macca, are not 'players', period. They're songwriters. They're singers.

A friend of mine saw Sting live and said he never touched a bass the entire show.

I remember in Jaco's updated bio, there's a blurb from Sting in which he says that he played upright for 6 hours a day and then Jaco sent him to the shed. Commence eye rolling in...

Quote by Cody_Grey102

I was looking at a used Warwick Vampyre LTD 5'er for about $200. I went home to grab my wallet and came back and some jerk with an epic beard got it already..

Sting is an AMAZING bass player. Not also that but he does it on a fretless and sings at the same time. How is that not disgusting?

It's not really the young crowds falt though for not really being able to understanding his abilities. Its just that this mallcore generation is only impressed if some clown is popin' "N" slappin on a 6 string.

Also, how many of todays "top bassists" can write songs, and i mean WRITE SONGS WITH MEANINGFUL LYRICS and not just random crap with a song title slapped on it ala Les Clapool?

I'll say it again... plays fretless (with no neck markers) and sings at same time while doing his trademark stage moves.... that>everyone else in my book

Sting is an AMAZING bass player. Not also that but he does it on a fretless and sings at the same time. How is that not disgusting?

It's not really the young crowds falt though for not really being able to understanding his abilities. Its just that this mallcore generation is only impressed if some clown is popin' "N" slappin on a 6 string.

I'll say it again... plays fretless (with no neck markers) and sings at same time while doing his trademark stage moves.... that>everyone else in my book

I have a sting live dvd, and while I won't argue your overall point, I will say that he sometimes barely plays his bass while singing; a lot of the basslines he cranks out live are pretty dumbed down compared to recordings.

And lots of us play fretless, or play while singing, or both. I'm not slamming sting in anyway here, and I certainly wish I was the songwriter he was, but I'm not in mad envy of his bass playing skills at any rate.

And I sure don't fall into the demographic of people who are only wowed by "popin' "N" slappin" If I have to listen to more than 10 minutes of wooten (even in the context of the flecktones) I forget the fact that music exists to be enjoyed by the listener. I'd rather listen to the police any day of the week.

I love Sting, he makes some of the most simple yet brilliant basslines ever, but I am part of this mallcore generation, and I call bs on what you say. I appreciate a beatiful bassline, and Sting, Claypool, Bruce, Wooten, Manring, hell, even that scrooge McCartney all make good ones.

We care about skill because we wana play the harder of the beatiful basslines. not to wank off.

stop trying to piss people off by sounding like a geezer.

Quote by FatalGear41

I wouldn't call what we have here on the Bass Forum a mentality. It's more like the sharing part of an AA meeting.

You're aware he was put down in a magazine as the #1 worst lyricist of all time, right? I disagree - I think he should be #3. Behind Neil Peart (whose lyrics read like a C# programming guide) and Jon Anderson (whose lyrics read like a bad Japanese translation).

So, which is it? Are you impressed by the MEANINGFUL lyrics? Or his superficial motor skills and the fact that he can do things you can't? While ignoring the fact that he cannot properly sing and play, and picks his bass as if it were an acoustic guitar? And how much older are you than me that you understand something that my mallcore slap-loving self cannot comprehend? You clearly don't have a grasp of English as art, otherwise you'd realize how awful his lyrics are. Straddling the line somewhere between "I don't understand this" and "Hey, he's using words that I don't regularly use in sentences, therefore it must be heavy poetry."

And your "OMG he can sing and play fretless and jump occasionally" is very remniscent of how 'we' adore douch... erm, dudes like Victor Wooten and Les Claypool. The envy of physical motor skills that we apparently do not possess.

Look Pizza, don't fall into the stereotype I have put you in, as a douche who is arrogant and will just rant and flame if people don't agree with him. If you notice, we have put forth reasons why we don't like Sting, and discussed them. This is a discussion forum, not a place for people to claim things with out giving proper reasons behind it.

All I want is for everyone to go to hell......It's the last place I was seen before I lost myself

Sting is an AMAZING bass player. Not also that but he does it on a fretless and sings at the same time. How is that not disgusting?

If by disgusting you mean poor bass lines then yes I agree.

It's not really the young crowds falt though for not really being able to understanding his abilities. Its just that this mallcore generation is only impressed if some clown is popin' "N" slappin on a 6 string.

What? You have your genres mixed up. Mallcore is what pseudo-metal fans listen to and think is "teh br00tahlz."

Also, how many of todays "top bassists" can write songs, and i mean WRITE SONGS WITH MEANINGFUL LYRICS and not just random crap with a song title slapped on it ala Les Clapool?

Lyrics don't make the song. And, although he is a guitarist, Muhammad Suicmez is a prime example of technical playing and doing vocals at the same time. Also if lyrics made the song how could Borknagar, a folk metal band, write about the conductive properties of electricity?

I'll say it again... plays fretless (with no neck markers) and sings at same time while doing his trademark stage moves.... that>everyone else in my book

Have you ever been to a Police concert? I have. He barely played fretless at all. And he didn't do his 'trademark' stage moves while playing a fretless.